3S6 SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE AMERICA [CHAPlof the Colorado before returning to the Gila, and so South toCaborca. About this time more serious efiforts were being madeby the Spanish authorities to extend their settlements alongthe coast of Upper California, as has already been mentionedin the chapter dealing with Pacific voyages; and it was feltto be particularly desirable to open up an overland route tothe port of Monterey on that coast (occupied in 1770), whUethe extension of the missions in this direction was also taken inhand. In 1774 Captain Juan Bautista de Anza was commis¬sioned to find a way overland from Mexico to Upper California,and Garces accompanied him as chaplain. The party made itsway, by the Gila and Colorado, to the mission of San Gabriel,which had been established near the coast of Upper California inabout 34° N., not far from the modern town of Los Angeles. Themain body returned by the same route, while Garces turned asideto visit one ofthe Yuma tribes on the Colorado. In 1775 Anzawas sent on a more important errand—for the estabHshment of amission and government station at San Francisco—and Garcesagain started with him. On arriving at the Yuma country, how¬ever, he once more went exploring on his own account. Fromthe Colorado mouth he ascended the river to Mojave in lat.35° N., proceeding thence west by a new route across countryto San Gabriel. Once more setting out from this station, hemade a trip north to the Tulare valley, afterwards returning toMojave, and continuing his journey eastward to the Moquicountry, which, it will be remembered, had been an objectiveof several of the Jesuit missionaries in the closing years of theirregime. This was his farthest towards the north-east, and henow retraced his steps by Mojave to the Yuma country andreturned by the Gila to his station of Bac, which was reached onSeptember 17, 1776. This journey of Garces had broken a certain amount of newground, and it was quite the most important of his entradas, asthese pioneer journeys of the missionaries were styled at the time.Three years later it was decided to found a mission among theYumas, several coadjutors being assigned to Garces for thepurpose. The attempt led to disaster, the measures adoptedbeing injudicious. Some of the best lands of the Yumas were